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Cold comfort

Mammoths living on the harsh steppes of Siberia probably died of malnutrition,
say French researchers.

Analysis of radioisotopes in the skin of mammoths on loan from the
Yakut Institute of Geology has provided clues to their diet and the environment
they lived in between 10 000 and 12 000 years ago. The mammoths were effectively
freeze-dried, so their bones and skin are well-preserved.

Gilles Pacaud, director of the Natural History Museum at Autun, France,
says results indicate that the animals were living in a climate that was
as cold as today’s but much drier. The vegetation was poor. ‘The mammoths
were using up more calories feeding themselves than they were ingesting
from the vegetation,’ he says.